Malfunction?

"This cannot be right..." Naois studied the readout of the scans he had just given his Romulan son.

Delon shrugged. "Not the first time it's done that is it dad?" he asked smartly, after the so-manieth scan his father had taken.

Naois sighed. "No," he answered curtly, "and it is not supposed to do that. For some reason, the beds will not read you as Romulan, any of them."

The boy chuckled, clearly amused at his father's frustration. "Well...wouldn't be the first time someone accused me of being Vulcan, why not the bed?"

Shaking his head, the Vulcan hybrid doctor tapped his combadge. "Mercy to OPS....please send someone down to sickbay, I require assistance."

Thorrin had been running diagnostics on the main systems from the bridge. When the call came through over the comm channel he checked how much time he had on his tests. Realizing that he had plenty of time he tapped his comm badge "Acknowledged Doctor I am on my way." He left his tests to run and headed to Sick Bay straight away.

[5 minutes later]

Thorrin arrived at Sick Bay with an engineering kit that he brought with him. "What seems to be the problem Doctor?"

Naois cast the man a look of pure frustration. "Tell me lieutenant, based on just your knowledge of species....what would you say this boy classifies as?" He pointed at the boy still sat on the bed. The boy, in turn, cast the man a wicked grin as he waited for the answer.

Thorrin cocked an eyebrow in a Vulcan manner he was sure that the Doctor had not called him down there just for a visual account of a young boy. But he decided to play along. "Well judging by the pointed ears and the slight cranial ridges I would say Romulan or a Romulan hybrid." The El Aurian steeled his eyes as he waited for the Doctor's response.

"Now...if you look at the computer read-out, what does it say?"

Thorrin took a look at the readout on the screen and it said that the boy was Vulcan. "Well it says Vulcan, and I am guessing by the look on your face that this child is not a Vulcan or Vulcan hybrid." Thorrin set his kit down on an empty biobed and opened it up.

"Nor is he a hybrid of any sort..." Naois all but snorted. "My son is a full-blooded Romulan of eight standard years old." He gestured half-heartedly at the screen over the bed. "For some reason, the scanners will not make any distinction between Romulans and Vulcans yet it will make the distinction between a full-blooded Vulcan and a hybrid like myself. I am not a mechanic lieutenant, I require assistence in finding a remedy for this problem."

"Not a problem Doctor. Is this issue with only this one biobed or all biobeds?" Thorrin asked nonchalantly as he knelt and opened the access panel to the biobed systems.

"All of them..." Naois frowned. Did the man seriously think that he'd not test all the beds before calling for assistance?

"Very well in that case your issue is with the sensor tech and not the biobed systems. Thank you for being so thorough. You have saved me an immense amount of time." Thorrin slid his way into the access hatch knowing everything that he needed to know about the Doctor. He was impatient and and slightly temperamental. However, Thorrin also knew full well how to deal with people like that.

After about ten minutes of scanning through the systems Thorrin found the problem and set to work to repair it. "It seems that there is a slight issue with the sensors in your biobeds Doctor. All of them are roughly 3 microns out of alignment and this is just enough to miss certain DNA markers. Give another 5 minutes or so and I should have this repaired." He said through the bulkhead.

"Thank you," was all Naois said. "Take all the time you need."

The solitude of jefferies tubes and crawl spaces was the reason that Thorrin went into Ops. He was lost in his own world as he worked on the systems. A world that he was sad to leave five minutes later. "That should do it Doctor. Try your scans now." Thorrin said as he began to pack up the engineering kit, he was quite confident in his work.

With the biggest smirk on his face, Delon hopped up on the bed again and his father activated the bed's scanner. "That is better," he commented after a few seconds, "let us hope this was the only issue..."

"Agreed. However, this is a new ship so there are bound to be bugs in the system. I believe humans are fond of saying that there are gremlins." Thorrin said with a smile.

"Gremlins?" Both Naois and Delon asked in unison, both arching a single eyebrow in confusion. "What is a Gremlin?" Delon proceeded to ask, looking first at his father, and then at Thorrin. "We're not Human....what's a Gremlin?"

Thorrin chuckled briefly. "Neither am I, human that is." Thorrin trained his black eyes on the two of them. "I am an El Aurian. However, a gremlin is a small creature usually ugly in appearance from Terran folklore. They like to cause havoc with technology and they have been doing so since time immemorial. No actual proof of their existence has ever emerged, however, humans believe in them nonetheless."

"I see. At any rate, thank you for fixing the system lieutenant. Now at least it will not insult Romulan patients by marking them as Vulcans. If any other discrepancies turn up, I will let you know. "

"I am always available to help you suss out any issues with these new systems." Thorrin collected his things. "You have a great day and talk to you soon." He said.